Lunar New Year migration could be factor in climate change, Chinese study finds
With fewer people around, mainland's urban centres become colder: researchers
The Lunar New Year holiday, which prompts the world's largest annual human migration, could be a factor in climate change, mainland scientists say.
They found that in Harbin, the biggest centre in the mainland's northeast, the "urban heat island" effect from human activity fell by up to 70 per cent at night over the week-long break as people left, leaving Harbin more exposed to the wintry chill.
The study, by a team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Atmospheric Physics, described the impact as "robust".
Researchers analysed the government's meteorological records from 1992 to 2006 and found abnormal drops in urban temperature during most Lunar New Year holidays.
Professor Zhang Jingyong, of the institute's Centre for Monsoon System Research and an author of the study, said Harbin was not the only mainland city "chilled" by the Lunar New Year.
The team found that other mainland cities, including Beijing, were affected.
The case study on Harbin was detailed in a paper available online in peer-reviewed journal Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters in December. The results on other mainland cities will be released separately.